What Makes a Good Patient
Medical diagnosis is tricky and involves cooperation between the physician and the patient. Many patients come into the office and give a diagnosis rather than a chief complaint. This complicates the physician’s ability to diagnose the real ailment. This might be caused by the easy access to medical and paramedical information sources available online—such as WebMD, the Mayo Clinic, or Medscape. However, many times patients may pick up on some of the symptoms and miss others that point in another direction. Self-diagnosis generally leads to a wrong diagnosis, especially if the physician is constrained by 15-minute increments in patient consultations.
The optimal interaction between the physician and the patient is one where both participants engage in a comfortable conversation with a good flow. Occasionally, a physician may have a wrong initial impression and further evidence points to a new conclusion.
The patient also should avoid censoring the points raised by the physician that they might think are unimportant: it is always crucial to let the physician make the most accurate diagnosis on his own. Optimal care cannot always be scheduled for an exact amount of minutes. Sometimes, patients need to be fully comfortable with the physician and they do not provide the important information after some time in the consultation. I always encourage my patients to practice full openess and surrender the immediate right answer. The answer usually will reveal itself at the end of the consultation.
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